Former Saskatoon Blades goalie steps up for Ukraine

Michael Garnett spent 10 years in Russia playing hockey in the KHL.

Now he’s spending his days helping Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.

Garnett, who’s from Saskatoon, played for the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades before spending one season in the NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers and then the next decade in Russia. He has a lot of Ukrainian heritage.

“So you can imagine, when this war started, how that was just incredibly challenging for me and I knew I had to do something,” Garnett told Gormley guest host Brent Loucks.

In February, watching the start of the war, Garnett said he felt betrayal and pain and had a sick feeling in his stomach.

“It was really hard for me to watch the pictures, to watch the news reports and see cities that I’d been in and cities I’d played hockey games in Ukraine, and seeing the people suffering,” he explained.

Instead of sitting with that feeling, Garnett said his wife encouraged them to do something. So they went to Poland and spent basically all of April shuttling Ukrainian refugees from the border to aid centres.

Then the two raised money, about $12,000, and went back in May to buy and bring supplies to aid centres and orphanages inside Ukraine.

The two then came back to Canada and found a way to help from here, with helpfromCanada.org.

It was started by a WestJet pilot and his brother, Garnett, and his wife – who also is a WestJet pilot — decided to get involved.

They’re encouraging WestJet employees to donate their buddy passes, which are basically standby tickets to anywhere WestJet flies. Employees get 10 a year and Garnett said most go to waste.

“You can fly anywhere with a piece of luggage for about $110 to $140, depending on the destination. It’s just the taxes and fees,” said Garnett.

For people who don’t work at WestJet, Garnett said they can donate to the website any amount, but he did say $150 on average will get someone from Ukraine to Canada.

The organization is trying to push through its application to get charitable status to be able to issue tax receipts for donations.

So far, 150 people have been brought to Canada through this group, according to Garnett, some of whom have settled in Saskatchewan.

“We are bringing people here to safety. These are people that don’t have anything to go back to. Most of them are from eastern Ukraine, they’ve lost their jobs, their houses, everything’s kind of destroyed and they’re here to get a fresh start,” said Garnett.

Garnett said it’s a pleasure to have this as his full-time work now, noting it almost feels like his mission in life right now.

“Being able to speak the Russian language and having all this cultural experience and now being in a position to help from Canada, it feels like it’s all kind of come together,” he said.